Podside Picnic

This time we talk about Brian Trenchard-Smith's 1986 post-apocalypse nightmare, Dead End Drive-In.

We get together to talk about the history of Jeff Smith's process in publishing Bone as well as the first three collections (Out from Boneville, The Great Cow Race, Old Man's Cave), now combined into "Book 1"

Guests Sam Reader and Eden Kupermintz join us to talk about the operatic fever-dream that is Hiron Ennes's The Works of Vermin.

We get back together to . . . well, you know

We're joined by Este, of the Altmania podcast, to talk about Holmes & Yoyo. Ever hear about good cop, bad cop? How about not-so-great cop and awkward robot cop?

This time we discuss the Gothic-to-Cosmic Horror pipeline that is FromSoftware's Bloodborne. Writer and editor, John WM Thompson, as well as Worker's Lit podcast comrades, Lenore Olson and Aysha U. Farah join us in fearing the old blood.

This time, we talk about another example of Twohy excellence, The Arrival (1996). Charlie Sheen, our hero, uncovers a nefarious alien conspiracy to change Earth's climate

Twin Cities-area writers Naomi Kritzer, Lydah Morehouse, Marissa Lingen, and J.R. Dawson join us to talk about how the presence of ICE during Operation Metro Surge and beyond has affected them, and how their activism has informed their writing. Preorder Naomi Kritzer's novella, Obstetrix Check out J.R.'s book, The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World Marissa Lingen's novella, A Dubious Clamor is forthcoming from Horned Lark Press; and Lydah Morehouse's Welcome to Boy.Net is available via Wizard's Tower Press

This time around, we discuss some genre bits and bobs from around the internet. First up, we talk about Mike Jittlov's The Wizard of Speed and Time, a stop-motion extravaganza. Then, we discuss Juliana Maité's horror short, Agon. From there, we also cover Antediluvian (Mario Lanzas), Mallet! (Aidan Hughes a.k.a. BRUTE!), and R'ha (Kaleb Lechowski) Enjoy!

This time, we talk about Mamoru Hosoda's Summer Wars (2009), a wacky almost-cataclysm involving an everything app, a Love Machine, country gentry weirdos, and Japan's second-best math guy

Jacob from Worker's Lit podcast returns - this time to talk about Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Chris and I get together to talk about Phillip K. Dick's original novella and Steven Spielberg's lean, mean actioner that has managed to remain prescient 24 years later.

This time we return to the oeuvre of U.S. mythologist and professional dinner guest, Washington Irving to talk about his most Goof-coded character: Rip Van Winkle

A bit more chatting about this and that. We even try to keep it vaguely SFF-related!

Ready to . . . fall into what appears to have been Tarsem Singh's passion project? That's right, we discuss The Fall (2006) and how beautiful a man Lee Pace is

Join us for Robot and Frank (2012), a charming little film about loneliness, aging, and getting the robot gang together for one last job

We talk about The Truman Show (1998) this time, and Peter Weir's amazing filmography and how Thomas Kincaid wished he'd grown up in Seahaven

This time, we discuss the Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz collaboration, Elektra: Assassin. It really does end up feeling like Fear and Loathing in the MCU.

We got together to talk about Ryan Coogler's blockbuster hit, Sinners (2025) before it got a billion nominations at the Oscars

We return to the works of John Carpenter with Starman (1984), where an alien visitor incarnates as a pre-Dude Jeff Bridges for recently widowed Karen Allen and they go on a road trip

Enjoy your Sunday as we talk about The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

You will be visited by three versions of the Dickens classic. Spoiler: A Muppet Christmas Carol is not one of them, but it haunts the ones we talk about like a lonely old miser on Xmas Eve

This time we talk about Sneakers (1992), an odd bookend to our previous episode, Hackers. Our world-weary team of cybersneaks and ne'er do wells don't want to hack the planet at all

We go all the way back to 1995 to talk about the stylish Hackers. Hack the planet, man!

Well. . . have you? We get together to talk about and - of course - riff on what's made us happy this Thankful Season Note: sadly, after quoting from it, I completely forgot to mention the title of the essay (link to follow): The Claims of Close Reading by Johanna Winant https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-claims-of-close-reading/

We discuss Zach Creggers' Weapons (2025). Part parental nightmare, part (sub)urban legend, and very unnerving.

What if was Conan the Barbarian. . .s? And both of him were lunkheads? We discuss this fascinating approach in this one

Pete returns to chat about this and that during that finest time of year

We cover both the Washington Irving story and Tim Burton's 1999 adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - a story about the ghost of a Highlander terrorizing a small community

Imagine if you will, Meet Dave (2008) but if "Dave" was actually called Barry, lived in South Africa, and did a lot of drugs

Who knows what evil lurks under Alec Baldwin's prosthetic nose? Beats me, but we certainly talk a lot about The Shadow on this final (for now) Pulpside episode

This time around, we dig into the pulpy origins of one paranormal investigator by the name of Hellboy NOTE: We had some issues with the audio on this one, so please bear with us (and with many thanks to our sound wizard, Adam)

This time around we talk about The Rocketeer (1991), a movie that asserts that a jetpack future can be scary. . . if it's not in service to the old Stars and Stripes, that is!

We get together to chew the fat, see? All about this Dick Tracy fella

We kick off Pulptember with the recent classic of the pulp form with Raiders of the Lost Ark. You too could follow along. . . if only you spoke Jovitos

We get together to work out what exactly Miyazaki's going for in this dreamlike journey to the underworld story and wonder how DO you live?

We talk about Real Genius (1985), and the cool factor Val Kilmer brought to the whole thing. Safe travels, king

This time around, we talk about the absences that make up John Darnielle's Midwestern Weird novel

From Highlander animation to Highlander anime in this one. Directed by Ninja Scroll's Yoshiaki Kawajiri, one might expect it to be Highlander sleaze, but sadly no

More Highlander! A future and post-apocalyptic Highlander who goes by the name of . . . Quentin

We're fare-jumpers on Milo's journey through Dictionopolis, Digitopia and points beyond

It's finally time. Time for Terry Brooks' exceedingly strange Tolkien knock-off (by way of MTV)

Join us as we talk about the baffling follow-up to Highlander, and just how many versions of them are there anyway?

Aaron Thorpe returns to talk about Season 3 of the Apple TV series. Houston, do you copy?

It's just us fellas again, talking about what we've been up to. There might even be a SFF reference here and there!

We return to Dante's Inferno with Joe Dante's Matinee, starring John Goodman in the most John Goodman role ever, B-Movie auteur Lawrence Woolsey

We discuss Theodore Sturgeon and his short story

Kyle Winkler, writer and host of Left Hand of Le Guin joins us to talk about the latter books of Earthsea. Check out Kyle's work: https://kylewinkler.net/

Well, you better go catch yours and join us in our rambles

Our quarters are lined up to talk about Secret Level S:1